Review-A-Day

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In 1637, one Dutchman paid as much for a single tulip bulb as the going price of a town house in Amsterdam. Three and a half centuries later, Amsterdam is once again the mecca for people who care passionately about one particular plant — though this time the obsessions revolves around the intoxicating effects of marijuana rather than the visual beauty of the tulip. How could flowers, of all things, become such objects of desire that they can drive men to financial ruin?

In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan argues that the answer lies at the heart of the intimately reciprocal relationship between people and plants. In telling the stories of four familiar plant species that are deeply woven into the fabric of our lives, Pollan illustrates how they evolved to satisfy humankinds's most basic yearnings — and by doing so made themselves indispensable. For, just as we've benefited from these plants, the plants, in the grand co-evolutionary scheme that Pollan evokes so brilliantly, have done well by us. The sweetness of apples, for example, induced the early Americans to spread the species, giving the tree a whole new continent in which to blossom. So who is really domesticating whom?

Weaving fascinating anecdotes and accessible science into gorgeous prose, Pollan takes us on an absorbing journey that will change the way we think about our place in nature.

Review:

"I find this book to be inspirational — curiosity and gentleness of spirit forming genius." Richard Ford

Review:

"Pollan shines a light on our own nature as well as on our implication in the natural world." The New York Times

Review:

"Michael Pollan is a sensualist and a wonderful, funny storyteller. He is so engaging that his profound environmental messages are effortlessly communicated. He makes you fall in love with Nature." Alice Waters

Review:

"This book is as crisp as an October apple, as juicy as an August tomato, as long-awaited as the first flower of spring. Michael Pollan has conceived a new and powerful understanding of who we are, and how we stand in relation to everything else — and the stories he tells to prove the point make the world seem a richer place." Bill McKibben, author of Long Distance and The End of Nature

Review:

"It is a rare pleasure to read a book of ideas so graceful and witty that it makes you smile — at times even laugh out loud — with delight as it challenges you to rethink important issues." Mark Kurlansky, author of The Basque History of the World

Review:

"Like Tracy Kidder, Michael Pollan is a writer to immerse in. He's informed and amusing, with a natural sort of voice that spools on inventively beyond expectations into a controlled but productive and intriguing obsessiveness (whether on Johnny Appleseed or marijuana). A fine book." Edward Hoagland, author of Compass Points

Review:

"No one else writes about the human environment quite like Michael Pollan: we can be grateful indeed that one of our wittiest writers about nature is also one of our wisest. In The Botany of Desire, Pollan makes a persuasive case that the plants we might be tempted to see as having been most domesticated by humanity are in fact also those that have been most effective in domesticating us. It is a stunning insight, and no one will come away from this book without having their ideas of nature stretched and challenged." William Cronon, editor of Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature

Review:

"A wry, informed pastoral." The New Yorker

Synopsis:

Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires — sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control — with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind's most basic yearnings. And just as we've benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?

About the Author

Michael Pollan is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine as well as a contributing editor at Harper's magazine. He is the author of two prize-winning books: Second Nature: A Gardener's Education and A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder. Pollan lives in Connecticut with his wife and son.

librariphile, October 21, 2012 (view all comments by librariphile)
This is the first book I finished after a long hiatus from "fun" reading. Each chapter presented well-researched, new information as well as charming anecdotes from the author.

"Review A Day"
by Adrienne Miller, Esquire,
"A lovely book that succeeds in attaining that most elusive of states: grace." (Read the entire Esquire review.)

"Review"
by Richard Ford,
"I find this book to be inspirational — curiosity and gentleness of spirit forming genius."

"Review"
by The New York Times,
"Pollan shines a light on our own nature as well as on our implication in the natural world."

"Review"
by Alice Waters,
"Michael Pollan is a sensualist and a wonderful, funny storyteller. He is so engaging that his profound environmental messages are effortlessly communicated. He makes you fall in love with Nature."

"Review"
by Bill McKibben, author of Long Distance and The End of Nature,
"This book is as crisp as an October apple, as juicy as an August tomato, as long-awaited as the first flower of spring. Michael Pollan has conceived a new and powerful understanding of who we are, and how we stand in relation to everything else — and the stories he tells to prove the point make the world seem a richer place."

"Review"
by Mark Kurlansky, author of The Basque History of the World,
"It is a rare pleasure to read a book of ideas so graceful and witty that it makes you smile — at times even laugh out loud — with delight as it challenges you to rethink important issues."

"Review"
by Edward Hoagland, author of Compass Points,
"Like Tracy Kidder, Michael Pollan is a writer to immerse in. He's informed and amusing, with a natural sort of voice that spools on inventively beyond expectations into a controlled but productive and intriguing obsessiveness (whether on Johnny Appleseed or marijuana). A fine book."

"Review"
by William Cronon, editor of Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature,
"No one else writes about the human environment quite like Michael Pollan: we can be grateful indeed that one of our wittiest writers about nature is also one of our wisest. In The Botany of Desire, Pollan makes a persuasive case that the plants we might be tempted to see as having been most domesticated by humanity are in fact also those that have been most effective in domesticating us. It is a stunning insight, and no one will come away from this book without having their ideas of nature stretched and challenged."

"Review"
by The New Yorker,
"A wry, informed pastoral."

"Synopsis"
by Random,
Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires — sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control — with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind's most basic yearnings. And just as we've benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?

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